Metropolis at War: London , livre ebook

Metropolis at War: London
Biography of a Great City in Crisis
Larry W. Waterfield
Austin Macauley Publishers
2019-02-28
Metropolis at War: London About the Author Copyright Information Outline of the Contents Chapter 1: Metropolis in Mortal Danger Chapter 2: Total Mobilization Chapter 3: Smiles Among the Ruins Chapter 4: The Great March to the East Chapter 5: Blitz II: Death from Space Chapter 6: War and Revolution: Birth of the Welfare State Chapter 7: War Movies Chapter 8: War of the Words Chapter 9: ‘This Is London calling…’ Chapter 10: Capital of Capitals Chapter 11: From London to Jerusalem Chapter 12: Secrets and Spies Chapter 13: The Secret Army Chapter 14: What Did You Do in the War? Chapter 15: The Black Book Chapter 16: Up from Ruins Appendix Gallery
About the Author
Larry W. Waterfield is a journalist, author, and illustrator in Washington, D.C. He has covered news and events around the world. He ran a magazine news bureau in Washington for a number of years. His articles have appeared in magazines and newspapers in the U.S., Britain, Europe, and Latin America. He has worked as an editor, columnist, videographer, photographer, book author. He is also an illustrator producing poster and print art on history, architecture, travel, and other topics. He studied European History at the University of Missouri and received a Journalism degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism, where he also did graduate work. He is married and lives in Fairfax, Virginia.
Copyright Information
Copyright © Larry W. Waterfield (2019)
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher
Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
Ordering Information:
Quantity sales: special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address below.
Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data
Waterfield, Larry W.
Metropolis at War: London
ISBN 9781641821452 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781641821445 (Hardback)
ISBN 9781641821438 (Kindle)
ISBN 9781645369646 (ePub)
The main category of the book: History / Europe / Great Britain / 20th Century
www.austinmacauley.com/us
First Published (2019)
Austin Macauley Publishers LLC
40 Wall Street, 28th Floor
New York, NY 10005
USA
mail-usa@austinmacauley.com
+1 (646) 5125767
Outline of the Contents
AN INTRODUCTION
Imperial Capital: London as head of an Empire where the sun never sets.
Biggest City in the World
Capital of a Nation and an Empire
A threatened metropolis.
War on Land, at Sea, in the Air
Outbreak of WWII
Hitler Triumphant
London fights back
Coalition Government and Total War
Socialists and Conservatives share power.
Total Mobilization: 17 million in military and war work. Women at war.
Preparing for the worst. Plan to move the Government from London—The Black Move.
Blitz over Britain and London.
Bombs fall day and night.
The defenses and evacuation.
London resists. Deep shelters.
Life in the Subways and shelters.
Threat of Invasion, Starvation, Defeat.
Desperate plans to defend the city, nation.
Poison gas. Chemical warfare. Suicide squads.
The evil prospect of defeat.
Churchill’s war using words.
Hitler’s ugly plans for occupation of Britain: the Black Book of arrest and death. Fate of the Jews.
Elaborate British plans to invade neutral Ireland in the fight against Hitler.
A World at War—fighting on 3 continents.
The Empire strikes back.
British fleets and forces around the world, from North Africa to Palestine to India and Malaya—Singapore.
Battle of the Atlantic and beyond. Merchant Navy loses 2,400 ships, 32,000 sailors in order to supply necessities.
Death from Space—A Second Blitz—the world’s first rocket attack on a great city. Thousands hit London.
Countering the missiles.
World’s first jet plane sees action—against rockets.
Secret Wars: Spies, Saboteurs, Commandos
The intelligence war. ‘Ultra’ success.
Propaganda War: London Calling.
Germany Calling.
The War of Deception.
Bush House—BBC speaks to the world in dozens of languages.
The secret messages.
The great and deadly Soviet spy ring aimed at London.
World’s most successful spy? Klaus Fuchs.
Britain’s Secret ‘Terror Army’
Spies, good, bad, terrible.
Disaster in Asia: London reacts.
‘Worst Defeat’ in Singapore. Worst intelligence failure ever.
Crisis in India.
Britain vs. the Empire of Japan. Saving India.
London: City of Exiles.
Eleven governments in Exile.
The Exiles take the fight Home.
The Poles expose the Holocaust via BBC.
Preparing for the Birth of Israel:
Israel’s future leaders in London.
The thankless task of running Palestine.
Deadly birth pangs of a new nation.
The People’s War.
On the Home front: How the City survives.
‘The end of the good life.’ Rationing. Fate of famous hotels, restaurants. Keeping up Morale: Movies, music, theatre and more. ‘Hollywood on the Thames.’
War of the Words—London’s Raucous Wartime Press.
Americans—‘over fed, over-sexed, over here’.
What did You Do in the War? Famous writers, filmmakers, scientists, thinkers, economists, spies, actors were in war-time London. What were they doing?
Tomorrow, Just You Wait and See.
Hope on the Horizon.
A string of Victories.
Beginning of the End.
Peace—and Revolution
Defeat of Hitler, Japan. A Brief Euphoria.
Churchill voted out.
Labour—Socialist victory leads to nationalization of industry, a national health system, ‘socialized medicine’, an end of Empire in India, elsewhere. Birth of the Welfare State.
London rebuilt, revived, finds a new role in the world.
“Its greatest moment may have been its last great moment.”
Appendix
British forces around the world commanded from London, domestic war workers, civil defense, Home Guard, etc.
Wartime losses in the city: dead, wounded, evacuations, destroyed buildings and houses. The city then and now.
Chapter 1: Metropolis in Mortal Danger
In 1939, on the eve of World War II, London was the largest city in the world. It was also about to become the most threatened city. It would be the first world metropolis to come under sustained attack by modern warfare, first by aerial bombardment, then by rockets and missiles.
London, capital of Britain and Northern Ireland, and of a vast worldwide Empire, was the biggest target of all, both in terms of people, area, and geopolitical importance.
It is hard to imagine now the size and scope of that Empire controlled from London. At the time of the war, it encompassed 532 million people on every continent and spread over more than 10 million square miles. Some parts were ruled directly from London: Palestine, Singapore, Hong Kong, African colonies; various dependencies, protectorates, and mandates. Egypt and even Iraq were under British protection and control. Other states, Dominions of the Commonwealth, such as Canada, Australia, South Africa, governed themselves but followed London’s lead and foreign policy. The biggest slice of all, India, with 390 million people, was ruled by the British Raj and a viceroy sent from London.
Some 8.5 million people lived in London itself, spread over 600 square miles. Within 25 miles of the center, Charing Cross, lived more than 10 million. Within the commuting area, called the Home Counties—60 to 90 minutes by rail—lived perhaps another 2–3 million people.
In land area, London was bigger than New York and Berlin combined. The dense ‘inner London’ of 117 square miles was home to 4.5 million people.
London was a gritty northern city, known for its smog, fog and mists; its confusing jumble of streets with changing names. It had a certain grandeur, exemplified by massive buildings interspersed with charming Christopher Wren churches; crescent streets, gleaming white terraces, and palaces guarded by tall men in bearskin hats.
The vast East End was poor and cockney; the West End, ritzy and purveyor of the good life. In the middle was the City, the financial district, with its buttoned-down bankers in bowlers and sporting tightly-rolled brollies—umbrellas.
There were many Londons and everyone knew it in a different way. Low and nasty, haughty and aloof. In Bleak House , Charles Dickens saw ‘Much mud in the streets… Fog everywhere… And hard by Temple Bar, in Lincoln’s Inn Hall, at the very heart of the fog, sits the Lord High Chancellor in his High Court of Chancery.’
The poet A. E. Housman saw a heartless city through the eyes of a country lad, where the people are:
Too unhappy to be kind.
Undone with misery, all they can
Is to hate their fellow man;
To the romantic Wordsworth, it was a magical city where:
Ships, towers, domes, theaters, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in smokeless air.
London was black cabs and nannies pushing prams. It was the private clubs of ‘The Establishment’, the movers, and shakers. It was the center of live theater; it was the media center, with huge-circulation newspapers lining Fleet Street. It was a moviemaking center, with 11 active film studios. It was the home of a generally competent and professional Civil Service. Parliament and the Prime Minister made it the political center.
It was not an ethnic city. It was peopled with Englishmen, with communities of Welsh, Scots, and the Irish. That was about to change as thousands of folks from conquered Europe flowed in; Poles, French, Czechs, Dutch, even some Germans and Austrians.
The metropolis sometimes seemed undecipherable. In 1935, wr